Former Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe must pay back an irregular pension benefit of R9.9-million after his application for leave to appeal a high court judgment was dismissed.
As the state pushes ahead with moves to extradite Rajesh and Atul Gupta from Dubai on Transnet-related charges, prosecutors are preparing to move against at least another two former officials of the rail and ports state entity linked to looting its coffers.
Several sources in the criminal justice sector have indicated in the past two weeks that the process of building a case against the two former chief executives over the looting of Transnet by Gupta-linked firms is well underway and that arrest warrants will be issued in the coming weeks.
A source with intimate knowledge of the Transnet investigations said that prosecutors were assessing evidence against former chief executives Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh and that warrants for their arrest were likely to be issued “soon”.
The source said that although the arrest of the two was “not imminent”, the process of ascertaining what charges to pursue against them was at an “advanced” stage.
The charges apparently pertain to the Regiments Capital and Trillian Capital corruption scandal, in which both companies were paid a fee in excess of R90-million for securing a R30-billion club loan for Transnet to purchase diesel and electric locomotives in 2015.
Last month, six people — including former Transnet Rail chief executive officer Siyabonga Gama — were arrested over the saga, with the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture having recommended criminal charges.
Former Transnet chief financial officer Anoj Singh faces imminent arrest over the looting of Transnet. (Papi Morake/ Gallo Images)
Former Transnet chief financial officer Garry Pita, group treasurer Phetelo Ramosebudi, Regiments partner and former Trillian executive Eric Wood and Trillian Asset Management director Daniel Roy appeared in court along with Gama.
The group was released on bail ranging from R25 000 to R250 000.
The state has not yet released the charge sheet in the Regiments matter but is planning to do so in July once further suspects have been added to the six presently before court.
Molefe and Singh’s tenure — first at Transnet and then at the state-owned power utility, Eskom — saw first the ruinous procurement of 1 064 locomotives at a price that included a 20% markup for kickbacks, and then the acquisition of the Optimum Coal Mine by the Guptas’ Tegeta Exploration with the help of a R659-million prepayment for coal.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo found that Molefe, Singh, former Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko and former cabinet minister Mosebenzi Zwane colluded to help Tegeta acquire the mine.
He recommended that Singh and Koko face criminal charges.
The latter tried to convince the commission that he had no idea the email recipient with whom he was discussing the terms of the prepayment that would see the purchase of Optimum within days was Gupta associate Salim Essa.
Singh was confronted with evidence that Regiments based its tenders submitted to Transnet on confidential memos he sent to Molefe.
The commission obtained email correspondence of Niven Pillay in which he told management consulting firm McKinsey’s transformation manager Janine Kamaar that Regiments had based its supply development calculations directly on a memo Singh sent to Molefe.
In May last year, McKinsey agreed to pay back R870-million it had received from Transnet and SAA through tainted tenders it had secured in joint initiatives with Regiments, after discussions with the Zondo commission.
In 2018, the company paid back revenue it had made from an engineering contract with Eskom for which Trillian had also invoiced the state’s power entity.
At the Zondo commission, both Molefe and Singh were confronted with the testimony of former Transnet drivers, identified as Witness 1 and Witness 3, that they regularly received cash from the Guptas.
Both denied this but Singh struggled to explain his need to keep several safety deposit boxes at Knox Vault, venturing that these held his earnings from gambling and freelancing while he served as the chief executive of the logistics company.
Witness 1 survived an assassination attempt early last year, after his testimony to the commission.
Zondo, in the fourth instalment of his report on state capture, said Molefe had been untouchable because of his close ties to the Guptas and every effort had been made to impose him as finance minister.
Molefe’s relationship with Atul Gupta, who was arrested in Dubai last week, and the fact that they called each other 58 times in eight months, was one of the first major revelations of investigations into state capture.
The state has also made arrests in connection with the Tegeta matter and further arrests are expected to take place in the near future.
Tegeta Exploration and Resources director Ronica Ragavan, former Optimum Coal Mine trustee Pushpaveni Govender and former deputy director general of mineral resources and energy, Joel Raphela, were arrested last month on money laundering, fraud and forgery.
They are charged with stealing a total of R1.75-billion in rehabilitation trust funds from the Optimum and Koornfontein mines in Mpumalanga along with co-accused Ravindra Nath, who is on the run.
The money was meant to have been used to rehabilitate the two mines but instead was siphoned off to pay Tegeta’s operating expenses.NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga had not responded to questions from Mail & Guardian at the time of writing.
[/membership]